The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-10-14

Having accepted his invitation to a
shelter for the night, we were soon es'
tablished in one of the long, cool
adobcs
Our horses had been picketed as
close to the stockade as the grazing
limit would allow.
You'll have to take the resk on tho
stock, in course" said Briggs-he had
given us his name in the course OF oui
conversation. 1--WE all have TO take
them resks, but l reckon there's nc
danger to yerselves in here. The
Cheyennes caught us mapping here
once, as | was a-teling ye, and they
won't calc'late on doing it again.
Tell ye about it if you like. Twas
kind o. scaly times for Gowan an me,
but there was heap o. fun in it,
too"
OF course we were only too glad tc
listen to his account
ut was jest about year ago now"
he said. when Ed Gowan an me was
keepin' the ranch alone, while the
other three boys-there' gener'lly five
of us stay here-was up river a-hclpin'
new lot o steers just druv in from
Texas.
"There wasn't nobody along the
river a-thnkin' of Injun trouble then,
an as for Ed an me, we hadn't seen
one for nigh year. We stayed close
round the ranch here though. for a
week after the boys went off Then we
began to feel mighty restless.
Then, too, we was expectin' the
boys back ev'ry hour. We calc'lated
'wouldent be no harm to leave the
ranch for half days hunt We was
tired o. beef and bacon, an we knew
where to 90 to find plenty of ante
lope.
1--WE saddled our ponies. an struck
out that afternoon. We rode up into
the rock country bout II miles north
o. here. 'moung the big canyons an
cuts, an we found plenty of antelope.
We killed five by dark. but by the time
we could gather their saddles an pack
our extra horses. which we'd took two,
an get back to the ranch, it was nigh
daylight next morning.
THE boys hadn't come, SO, as we
was mighty tired an hungry an sleepy,
we turned our ponies in with the other
stock in the big corral, and got us some
breakfast; then we piled onto a couple
of hunks and was soon sleepin'
II was woke up by punch in the
ribs, an when I'd come to myself
'nough to git my eyes rubbed open, |
saw that there was half dozen naked,
greasy Cheyennes in the room, stand
ing around a-grinnin' at us. / saw,
too. that Ed was awake, an that they
had gathered up all our shootin' irons,
and that we was both pris'ners in our
own shantv.
IL needn't tell We that we both felt
mighty foolish and badly scared, though
we put on as bold face as we could,
Ed was the bravesi, though. and the
coolest. He'd been trapeze perform
er along with Montgomery Queens big
show. He was all muscles an siners,
up to all sorts of tricks, and as spry as
q cat
'Waal, sir, soon as Ed saw how
twas. he reached out his hand to the
nearest buck an says, says e: How
do, brudderp
"'Howp says the Injun, an all of
'em erunted and grinned.
"But Jest then there was a terrible
commotion and a-yellin' outside, an
two or three of the Injuns rushed out
The others wanted to see the rumpus
too. I 'xpect, for they turned to us, and
motioned us out of the door. We got
up and walked out with an Injun in
front an two behind us. As we got
out the door we heard a frightful yell
in outside the stockade. There was
six or seven Cheyennes dancin' and
screechin' like they'd gone plumb
crazy. But the biggist fun was goin'
on inside the stock corral, and we soon
saw that the dancin' bucks was a-laugh-
in, though you'd never guess at that
by Jest listenin' to 'em.
you see. one of their fellows, think
in of course he'd have an easy job, had
rode into the corral to drive out the
stock. there was thirteen ridin' ponies
and three or four colts. But there was
n customer in there that the Cheyenne